Busted!
by charmed7293
Summary: In the past, Chris finally found someone who trusts him. The only problem: she's dead!


Heyyy everybody!!! Supp!?! I've been super busy with stuffs but I thought that you guys deserved a little something. SATs were last Saturday and my brain has been shut down ever since then. And between attempting to turn my brain back on and finished my English portfolio I don't know the next time that I'm gonna be able to update _Dangerous Secrets_ so I'll give you this until then!!! Hope you like it!

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Chris stood over the Book of Shadows in the attic of the Halliwell manor, reflecting on the events of the day. Paige had put on a pair of Go-Go Boots that used to belong to Grams. Apparently, she had cast "Return to Sender" spells on all her things from that era and Paige was sent back to 1967. Grams was summoned from the afterlife to help. She sent Piper and Phoebe back in time to help Paige and he was left with her and Leo, not something he had wanted or enjoyed. Leo was constantly bugging him about what happens to Wyatt in the future and Grams was just as bad, nagging him about how he's not good enough for "her girls". Yeah, right. Is family not good enough?

And while Leo and Grams were busy harassing him, Chris spent the day trying to figure out a way to stop the giant green blob from swallowing them all whole. He thought he was doing a pretty good job, considering the circumstances.

The Witchlighter ruffled through the pages, having forgotten the specific thing that he was looking for in the first place. Suddenly, the pages began flipping of their own accord. They stopped on the spell to summon a ghost. He sighed; that wasn't what he was looking for. He turned more pages and hoped a picture or a passage would jog his memory. He sighed again, more frustrated this time, as the pages began flipping again. And, again, they stopped on the spell to summon a ghost. He looked at the page. It wasn't what he was looking for, but one of his ancestors was obviously trying to tell him something.

Chris walked over to one of the chests that held the magical supplies and took out some candles. He placed the candles in a circle, lit them, and moved back over to the Book of Shadows. Glancing down at the spell, he began to chant the spell:

"Hear these words, hear my cry,  
Spirit from the other side.  
Come to me, I summon thee,  
Cross now the Great Divide."

A swirl of white lights appeared in the middle of the circle of candles and coalesced into Penny Halliwell.

"Oh," Chris said.

Penny looked at him with a knowing gaze. "I bet you're wondering why I asked you to summon me?"

"Yeah, kinda," Chris answered. "Look, Ms. Halliwell, no offense but I'm kinda busy right now so whatever you wanted to tell me – "

"Ms. Halliwell?!" the matriarch exclaimed. "That's Grams to you, mister!"

"What?" Chris asked dumbly. _She couldn't have found out!_ he thought desperately. _Maybe if I play dumb she'll think she's wrong. Awwww, who am I kidding; Grams would never think she's wrong about anything!_

"You know perfectly well 'what', _Christopher Perry Halliwell_!"

_Busted!_ he thought, a sheepish look appearing on his face.

Smiling, Penny walked over to him. "You look so much like Piper. And you had real determination and resourcefulness, definite Halliwell traits."

"How long did you know?" Chris questioned.

"Shortly after I was rescued from that blob. Everything I saw when I was still my hippy-self seemed to come together. I didn't say anything to the girls though; I figured you had your reasons for not telling them."

"I can't tell them; it would change the future too much!" Chris burst out.

"Isn't that what you came here to do? Change the future? From what I understand, you came back here to stop Wyatt from turning evil," Grams pointed out, then mumbled to herself, "I always knew that men couldn't handle magic."

Chris grinned at his great-grandmother's jibe at his older brother, but he was annoyed that she didn't understand his reasoning. "That's exactly why I came here, but I don't want to change _too_ much! If they know who I am I won't get as much freedom I have now. They won't let me leave the Manor alone! And they'll probably make me move in here and I don't want them looking over my shoulder all the time!"

"They'll trust you."

"They do trust me."

Grams gave him a look. "Not enough. I know my girls, and they won't trust you if you don't tell them anything! If they know you are family they will believe everything you say, vanquish any demon you ask them to."

"Grams, you might have raised them, but they raised me, okay! I know how they are, too, which is exactly why I'm not gonna tell them."

"There's something that you're not telling me."

Chris looked down at the floor. His great-grandmother had always been one of the few people that could see right through him. She would be able to tell if he was lying or holding something back. "So what if there is. You're from the past, ghost or not, and the more people I tell about the future, the more of a chance the girls will find out."

"Chris, can you trust me in the future."

"Yeah."

"Then trust me now. I've already promised not to tell the girls about who you are, so telling me the reason that you're not telling them who you are – and I mean the _real_ reason, not some 'future consequences' crap – couldn't hurt, could it?"

"I guess . . . "

"So, go on."

Chris sighed. "I'm afraid that, if I tell them, that they're gonna treat me like family. That everything will be just like it was in the future, before the world went to hell. You see, in the future, the Charmed Ones are dead; they're gone. If – when – I succeed, I have to go back to the future. And I don't know if the one I go back to will be the changed one or the one I'm from. If it's the one I'm from . . . I don't want to lose them again. I'm afraid of getting close to them, only have to lose them all over again." He collapsed on the couch, eyes glassy from his admission.

Penny sat down next to him and put a hand on her great-grandson's shoulder. "But if you go back to the new future that won't be a problem. If you don't tell them at all, what are they going to think when you are born? Their son is going to grow up into _you_, more or less. Leo and Piper are going to wonder why their son looks an awful lot like their cocky, annoying Whitelighter from the future."

"Then let them wonder! I just can't tell them. I don't want or need them prying in my business!"

"There's something else you're hiding. There's another reason why you don't want to tell them who you are."

"There is. The girls don't know about Wyatt being evil. I only told them that something hurt him in the future and I'm trying to stop it from happening – hey! Wait a second! How do you know that he's evil!"

"Just call it great-grandmotherly intuition! And men can't handle power."

"Funny how you bring power up. That's all Wyatt claims that exist. He doesn't believe in good and evil anymore. But just imagine for a second. I tell Piper and Leo that I'm their son and they love me and trust me and everything. They're probably gonna think that I can tell them exactly what happened to Wyatt in the future. Like, how did he get hurt him and what can they do to help me. And I would have to tell them the truth; I wouldn't be able to lie to Piper when she's 'mom'. I couldn't put them through the pain of knowing what Wyatt's become. If they think he's dead, then at least they think his souls at peace and surrounded by family in the afterlife. But if he's evil, his soul's in torment, constantly battling with itself."

Penny nodded in understanding and rubbed soothing circles on the Witchlighter's back. "I understand why you don't want to tell them," she assured him. "There will be some drawbacks – many of them painful – but think of the good things that will come of it. They won't resist you at every turn – "

"I know, I know," Chris interrupted her, "but, please, I just can't . . . not right now."

"Okay," Penny consented. She trusted that Chris would tell them when he felt it was right. He could handle this situation; he was a Halliwell after all! Even if he wasn't a girl, he clearly could handle his magic and the responsibility that came with it. _Hmmm, two boys born into this generation so far . . . I think the winds of change are blowing! I know these boys have a great destiny ahead of them. Wyatt being evil can't be part of their densities, though; he is the child of two of the greatest good beings ever to exist! Chris will succeed because this can't be the way it was supposed to be . . ._

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Hope you enjoyed!!! And if you did (even if you didn't) please review!!! It make my day!


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